Percentage of Colleges With Child Care Centers Shrinking

The number of college students who are also parents is increasing, but the percentage of four-year public institutions that have child-care centers on campus has dropped to less than half, according to a new report released this month by the Institute of Women's Policy Research.

In 2003, 55 percent of four-year public colleges provided campus child care, compared to 49 percent in 2015. The decrease at community colleges was even sharper: 53 percent offered campus child care in 2003, and only 44 percent offered it in 2015. Since 1995, the number of parents in college has jumped from 3.2 million to 4.8 million.